This is what the end of domination looks like: one coach, smiling and speechless and standing in the rain amid a wild celebration.

The other in the loser’s locker room, explaining that—no matter what you hear—he has been assured he will be back next season.

And that, everyone, is the state of the USC-UCLA rivalry. One program is surging, a shining example of what can happen with the right coach.

The other is a shell of its former self, deflating before our very eyes.

“I don’t know what to say,” Jim Mora said in the FOX television interview after his once broken down UCLA program became the new big dog in the city of Los Angeles with a 38-28 victory in the Rose Bowl.

“I don’t know what to say,” Lane Kiffin said in his postgame press conference after his USC team lost for the fourth time after beginning the season ranked No. 1.

I know what to say: UCLA finally made the right hire. Finally got a coach who isn’t intimidated by cross-town rival USC; who wasn’t afraid to claim—on Day 1—the days of UCLA being soft were over.

So too now, are the days of backing down and losing to USC.

The Bruins won the Pac-12 South Division Saturday, but won so much more that had nothing to do with the right to play for the conference championship in two weeks or closing in on a 10-win season.

UCLA won liberation.

Through all those years and all those championships, one thing was never more overlooked: all that damage USC’s invincibility did to the UCLA program. The Bruins were once elite, you know. They were heavyweights in the Pac-10.

Then Terry Donahue left. Then Bob Toledo happened. And Karl Dorrell and Rick Neuheisel and a whole lot of losing.

Meanwhile, USC hired a guy named Pete Carroll, who proclaimed USC’s days of underachieving were over—then went out and proved it. More than a decade later, it’s happening again.

How did UCLA become relevant so quickly, you ask? Because the Bruins did the very thing the Trojans did.

They hired the right coach.

UCLA beat USC Saturday; UCLA won the Pac-12 South Division and feels better about itself and where it’s headed for the first time since the mid-1990s because it hired a fiery, aggressive, player-friendly coach who fits perfectly in Los Angeles. Sound familiar?

They’re staring a redshirt freshman at quarterback; they’ve got underclassmen at key positions all over the field. They’ve got recruiting momentum and they’re strong enough and confident enough to do what USC did when Carroll arrived—a year early.

The Trojans were 6-6 in Carroll’s first season, a transition year where he had problems at the quarterback spot and had issues with players buying into what he was selling. Mora has a quarterback who already is among the nation’s elite, and he has a team so desperate for something good to happen, they’ve gone from losing to USC by 50 points (50-0 last year), to utter domination of a team that had won 12 of the last 13 games between the teams.

Earlier this spring, I visited Mora in Los Angeles during spring practice, and one of the first things I told him was his team had the reputation of being soft. He cocked his head, leaned forward, looked me dead in the eyes and said, “I guarantee that’s one thing you will not call UCLA from now on.”

That was UCLA sealing a program-defining win the fourth quarter. USC cut the lead to 31-28, had the Bruins at their own 17 and had seized momentum. The Bruins went seven plays and 83 yards—44 yards on four carries by Franklin—to extend the lead back to 10 and break USC’s will. And let the last bit of air out of the Trojans’ deflating season.

“That drive was everything we talked about for the last 10 months,” Franklin told reporters.

That drive was what UCLA has become. And, in the process, what USC is.

The coach has the team believing. The players have the program surging.